found: Dictionary of African Biography, accessed December 15, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Bilal, Ibn Rabah; al-Habashi' (the Abyssinian); Ibn Hamama (the son of Hamama); slave, Muslim scholar; born in the late sixth century in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; African slave, known in the Muslim world as the first muezzin (mu'addin) in the history of Islam; close black companion of the Prophet Muhammad; followed the Prophet to Medina in the hijra (emigration to Yathrib / Medina in 622); called Muslims to prayer, launching the adhan from the roof of the holy Ka'ba (630); conflicting accounts as to his whereabouts following Muhammad's death; became particularly revered by African and African American Muslims, particularly so to the Islamized Manding people of Mali, the black musicians in Morocco (Gnawa), black Muslims of North Africa, India and the United States; died between 638 and 642 somewhere in Syria)